Despite the value of cryptocurrency plummeting since 2017, cybercriminals and rogue nations are still using it to launder funds. One new scheme is “crypto dusting,” according to CipherTrace founder and CEO, Dave Jevans, who discusses the results of the company’s latest Cryptocurrency Anti-Money Laundering Report.

“This is when the bad guys, who typically operate money laundering operations and crypto, want to disable the ability of anti-money laundering and investigation tools,” Jevans explains in an interview with Information Security Media Group. “So what they’re doing is sending tens of thousands of people a week very small amounts of cryptocurrency that has obviously gone through money laundering services … so that everyone active in crypto is getting a negative reputation. Therefore tools that use reputation scoring don’t work anymore.”

Cryptocurrency money laundering by nation-states, including Iran and Venezuela, to avoid economic sanctions;

The rise of cryptocurrency heists in 2018 despite a significant decrease in the value of many currencies;

The potential impact regulations could have on cracking down on cryptocurrency money laundering schemes.

Jevans is the founder and CEO of CipherTrace, which specializes in blockchain security and anti-money laundering compliance. He has 20 years of experience in the security and payments markets. He holds 17 U.S. patents in cybersecurity and has founded and sold three cybersecurity startups. He also serves as the chairman of the Anti-Phishing Working Group, a consortium of more than 1,500 government agencies, financial services companies, ISPs, law enforcement agencies and technology vendors.